Family Crests/Coat of arms + last name : Sierra?

Question

do you have any links you could give me to the coat of arms for the last name sierra?

thanks!

Answer 1

Best link I can think of for an American to go to is The American College of Heraldry, of which I  am a member.

www.americancollegeofheraldry.org

Answer 2

No such thing as a family crest.   A crest is part of a coat of arms.  Not all coats of arms have crest.

Coats of arms do not belong to surnames.  They were and are granted to individuals and are passed down to the legitimate direct male line descendants.  There might have been, for instance, 15 different individual men with the same surname, not all necessarily related, each granted their own coat of arms, all different.  Then some persons with that surname will not be entitled to a coat of arms at all.

None of the peddlers who sell them on the internet, at shopping malls, at airports, in magazines or solicit by mail will have all 15, no way.  They just want to sell you something and they know to sell to most people they don't need to have all 15.  The only time they will have more than one is if more than one person with the same surname were granted a coat of arms.  In that case they will have one of each when in fact there might have been several of each.

See the links below, one from the British College of Arms(they grant coats of arms) and the other from the most prestigious genealogical organization in the U.S., The National Genealogical Society.

http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Faq.ht...

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerp...

If this is a school assignment, print off any that you find to complete your assignment. Just put "family crest" which is a misnomer for a coat of arms in your search engine and your will probably find a multitude of sites.   However, also print off the 2 links I am furnishing you and give them to your teacher.  Feel free to give to your teacher what I am posting here.

Those merchants that sell walnut plaques, keychains, coffee mugs, TShirts etc  in many cases have a valid coat of arms but they don't belong to everyone with that particular surname. Also the family history that comes with them is frequently a valid family history for some persons with that surname but not necessarily all persons with that surname.  

Anybody who is very knowledgeable in genealogy or heraldry when going into someone's home and they see one of those little walnut plaques on their den wall or over their fireplace, will be amused but won't show it in order to be polite. We don't ridicule people about things like that in their own homes.

Answer 3

It's more or less down to what you find on Google. My surname is extremely rare, and even I found three versions of our coat of arms.

The only problem is, if you're not sure which coat of arms is yours, yours, you should probably research it first. Otherwise you're effectively passing yourself off as a totally different family line, who just happens to have the same surname.

Even though mine is so rare, I don't know which coat of arms is mine, so I'm not using any until I can confirm.

Answer 4

Shirley is 100% right.

If you were legitimately, legally entitled to one, you would already know it.  Coat of Arms were granted to INDIVIDUALS, not assigned to surnames. Just because someone of your last name MAY have been granted one at some point does not make it yours.  Also, it may be that several men of the same surname were granted a coat of arms....each one different.....and maybe none of the men were related to each other.  Likewise, it may be that NO ONE of your surname was ever granted one.  In order for you to be able to claim any Coat of Arms you must be able to do the following:

1. research your family tree to see if you have any ancestors that were granted a Coat of Arms.

2. If you do have an ancestor who was granted one, then you can only claim it IF the following is true: The person who rightfully can claim a Coat of Arms that was granted to their ancestor is a male descendant who is the first born son, of the first born son, of the first born son, of the first born son, etc., all the way back to the person who was originally granted the Coat of Arms. If you do not fall in that line, then you cannot claim it.  If you do fall in that line, then chances are you are already aware you have one.

To use a Coat of Arms based on your last name is meaningless.  It is about as accurate as buying a picture frame at the store that has a piece of paper in it showing an image of a child holding a flower and claiming that is actually a picture of your child.

Answer 5

Gee I don't know. How I found out some of the things for my family, is that I just googled my name, and there were a few links. Good Luck!